


Solace

by pnsyblltrx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 17:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18480610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pnsyblltrx/pseuds/pnsyblltrx
Summary: She was his solace.





	Solace

There was something about her, he realized.  
Something that infuriated him yet intrigued him at the same time.  
She wasn’t like most girls, and he didn’t mean that in the most cliche way.  
There was, in fact, something about her that made her different.  
She didn’t care about her looks, or what the general wizarding population thought about her.  
She was focused solely on making a difference in the world.  
He liked that about her.  
He liked how she was just such a good person.  
He hated how he wasn’t.  
He hated that she was so good that he’d heard her defending him to the other students.  
You try having Voldemort in your home threatening your mother’s life and see if you wouldn’t do the exact same things he did.  
Nobody was going to contradict Golden Girl Granger.  
They were just going to throw ugly looks at him as they walked away muttering under their breath.  
“I hope you aren’t expecting an apology,” he snarled out to her.  
She shook her head with a frown and walked way.  
-  
The next time she defended him, she was late.  
He was already on the ground, busted and bleeding.  
She docked points, handed out detentions and proceeded to heal the damage.  
“You’re late.”  
“You’re welcome.”  
As she walked away from him, he stopped her with a bloody hand to her wrist.  
“Thank you.”  
-  
The time after that she didn’t leave.  
She sat next to him on the wall.  
“Why don’t you defend yourself?”  
He didn't respond. He didn’t know how to explain it. How do you explain to someone so good and heroic that you don’t want to be exactly who everyone thinks you are. You don’t want to be the bad guy who uses violence. You don’t want to hurt anyone. There had been too much hurt, too much pain caused by his hands. Too much blood. He didn’t want to see anymore. He didn’t know who he was anymore. He’d been stripped of the prestige he once had. He didn't want to be Draco Malfoy. He didn’t want to be a former failed Death Eater. He didn't want to be.  
She didn’t say anything.  
She sat there with him until after the sun had set and the stone had grown cold and no person walked the halls.  
They walked to the stairs together and then parted.  
Him down to the dungeons, her up to the tower.  
It felt ironic.  
-  
The next morning she sat with him.  
She abandoned her friends and sat in the empty seat in front of him.  
There was a silence in the Great Hall, as if no one dared to move or say a thing, less they miss anything that was happening.  
Nothing happened.  
She sat there contently eating her oatmeal.  
He sat there staring as her as if she’d grown two extra heads.  
“Pass the blueberries would you?”  
He sat there, immobile.  
Her irritated sigh unfroze him.  
As he passed her the bowl, his senses returned.  
His ears were hot. Everyone was whispering excitedly. She smelled vaguely of soap. His coffee wasn’t sweet enough.  
-  
“I don’t need a babysitter.”  
“No, you just need a friend.”  
He was silent for the rest of Charms.  
-  
She was relentless.  
She ate with him at the Great Hall, sat next to him in the classes they shared and did homework with him in the library.  
She didn’t force conversation, preferring to work silently unless she had a question.  
He had questions.  
Lots of them.  
Like what did she mean he needed a friend?  
Didn’t she care that by associating with him she was ruining her perfect image?  
She didn’t.  
A war hero friends with a Death Eater?  
The day of that headline she was furious.  
Hair frizzing up with random sparks shooting off, glaring at anyone within her line of sight, grinding her teeth so harshly he could hear the squeak.  
That was the day someone actually confronted her.  
The Irish lad asked her what Potter thought of her friendship with the guy responsible for Dumbledore’s death.  
“Harry testified in his favor. Harry, Ron and I would be dead if not for him. Remind me again what you were doing? Exactly, so shut your bloody mouth, Finnegan.”  
Once he had left she slammed the book shut.  
“The nerve of some people! As if you killed Dumbledore, as if we aren’t all responsible for someone’s death after everything!”  
-  
He cried that night.  
Alone in his room, curtains closed and wards up.  
He cried.  
-  
The next morning he arrived at the Great Hall before her.  
She looked startled by the blueberries set next to her glass.  
-  
She found him one day in the Astronomy Tower.  
Sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, eyes unwavering from the spot Dumbledore had last stood alive.  
She sat next to him after casting a slight warming charm around them.  
“It’s my fault.”  
“He was already dying. Besides, you didn’t send the Killing Curse, Snape did.”  
“Severus did it so that I wouldn’t have to. He made a Vow to my mother to protect me.”  
“You shouldn’t have been placed in that situation anyways.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
She rested her head on his shoulder.  
-  
The holidays came. Almost everyone left.  
A couple of the younger kids stayed.  
He and Granger were the only older ones staying behind.  
Per the agreement that kept him out of Azkaban, kept him on Hogwarts grounds.  
She had no one to return to.  
“My parents are in Australia with no knowledge that they have a daughter, the Weasley’s are having a hard time without Fred, I had no place there.”  
“My father is basically dead, a living shell after the Dementor’s Kiss, my mother losing herself locked away in the Manor.”  
“Your friends?”  
“Everyone has locked themselves in their homes. Pansy living alone after her parents left her to go to France, Theo has no one, Blaise doesn’t exist to his mother, Goyle blames himself for Crabbe’s death and is drinking himself to death. Yours?”  
“Harry bought some land somewhere and is discovering himself alone with no expectations, Ron is throwing himself into Auror training, Ginny is trying to take care of her mother. No one wanted to return, not here, not after everything.”  
“Why did you return?”  
“Who am I? If I’m not researching and helping Harry and Ron, what’s left?”  
He stayed silent.  
She pulled a thick blanket out of the beaded bag that was always attached at her hip.  
Staring across the Black Lake, they stayed until darkness fell.  
Thinking, reflecting, wondering.  
-  
He gave the package to the elf.  
Maybe it was a bit much, presumptuous of him, a step too far from someone who didn’t really know her all that well.  
The elf was gone.  
-  
He woke to a small collection of wrapped gifts at the foot of his bed.  
An arrangement of Weasley products from Theo, expensive candies from Blaise, new dragon hide boots from Pansy, a thick cloak with matching gloves and scarf from his mother, and one more gift he didn’t have the courage to unwrap.  
-  
He hid out in his room that day.  
Calling on the elves for food when he needed it.  
Trying to work himself up to open the small parcel.  
-  
A book on origami and an assortment of colored paper.  
And a note.  
I remember once, a note you sent to Harry in the shape of a beautiful swam, the contents weren’t beautiful. I think it was a drawing of him being electrocuted or something else foolish. I figured you could learn other animals to make and maybe use something besides parchment paper. I would love to see an elephant.  
-  
The next morning he found her sitting at the table eating breakfast.  
He dropped into his seat, noticing a table marker that stated his name in beautiful script using different shades of green.  
He met her eyes.  
"Caligraphy seemed easy enough to start with. Think I’ll work my way up to knife making, though metal work seemed interesting, I wonder how you could apply charms into them."  
Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a tiny blue elephant.  
“Thank you.”  
He took the parchment with his name and placed in in his pocket.  
It ended up in his trunk later that night.  
-  
They fell into an easy habit after that day, working on homework from breakfast to lunch. Then they’d work on their gifts for the rest of the time. Him practicing different origami folds and she trying whatever hobby caught her interest in the book of 200 different hobbies to find your passion.  
-  
They rang in the new year next to each other staring at the Black Lake.  
-  
By the time the students came back, he had a new scarf with various types of stitching throughout.  
She had a small zoo on her window still.  
-  
Exams came and went.  
Both stressed out and exhausted by the time the last exam was collected.  
Both with something to prove to the world.  
It was what had caused their intensive study sessions.  
She was more than Harry Potter’s Muggleborn friend.  
He was more than a failed Death Eater.  
-  
They celebrated in an abandoned room.  
Sitting together on the floor, fire whiskey being shared between the two, dust settling in the air from the disturbance of moving the cloths that were draped over the unused furniture and desks.  
It was late before either of them said a word.  
“What will you do now?”  
“Go home. Take care of my mother. Waste my galleons. Hide away.”  
“You could hide away with me, if you’d like?”  
“I think I would like that very much.”


End file.
